On the story-telling side I think both games suck a bit... too many things left unexplained and hanging in the hair. It's just careless. The characters themselves should be asking questions: "Why is there a secret lab under Marcus' dad's house", "What the hell are the Sires"... etc, etc.

I have faith that it will all be clear in the end. It's just the getting there that's irritating me. Anyway I have my own theories...

Gameplay wise I think Gears 2 has improvments compared to Gears 1 nad has some great new features but that they've failed to carry over some great old features from the original; having an open unranked match where ANYONE can join, it's how I made most of my playing buddies. Or rolling MP maplists so you don't have to sit through three loading screens every match...

On the whole I prefer playing Gears 2 to Gears 1 but that's probably because I've only just started to rank up in public matches, 18 and rising!
But I'll never give up Gears 1, my gang play it regularly every Friday and call it nostalgia...